The present invention relates to a support frame for resistor elements in a heating furnace for glass sheets, said frame providing a substantially continuous, elongated rest surface for a resistor element. The available resistor element support frames are manufactured for a certain, predetermined resistor element length, a furnace being lengthwise fitted with a plurality of separate arrays of resistor elements with their support frames. A resistor cannot be replaced until a furnace is cooled which means a long down-time. There will be a large number of separate resistor elements.
An object of the invention is to provide a novel support frame for resistor elements for eliminating the above drawbacks.
According to the invention, this object is accomplished by fastening the separate support frame elements to each other by means of links. The support frame elements are preferably trough-like castings.
This solution offers several significant advantages. It is possible to cast short frame elements for easier casting.
The short frame elements can be assembled into long continuous support frames. PA1 Inside a support frame will be formed a continuous tube or trough for inserting a resistor element therein from the end of said tube or trough. PA1 Replacement of a resistor element is easy without cooling the furnace. PA1 The number of separate resistor elements is substantially reduced (e.g. in a tempering furnace 1/3 of the present number).